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Sidebar: How billionaire philanthropy is changing women's health for Africans

kanyamanoj.substack.com · 2,486 words · saved by 1 readers

A reader recently asked me to write about femtech startups in Sub-Saharan Africa.* That hit a nerve. I realized I couldn’t speak honestly about African femtech without unraveling the system it’s built inside. So this post is a detour into that system—based on discussions with Stanford economists and 7 years working on the ground, within governments, and inside philanthropy. It’s not a startup guide. But I hope it gives African femtech founders context on the macro forces shifting the ground beneath you. For others, it’s a long-overdue conversation about the power dynamics shaping African women’s health. *For brevity, I use Sub-Saharan Africa and Africa interchangeably throughout this post. As USAID is dismantled and other western governments turn inward, philanthropies are stepping in to fill the foreign aid gap. Power is rapidly consolidating into the hands of a few billionaire individuals and families—in ways both familiar and more extreme than ever. Nowhere is this happening faster

Sidebar: How billionaire philanthropy is changing women's health for Africans And what it gets wrong Kanya Jun 17, 2025 13 1 3 Share A reader recently asked me to write about femtech startups in Sub-Saharan Africa.* That hit a nerve. I realized I couldn’t speak honestly about African femtech without unraveling the system it’s built inside. So this post is a detour into that system—based on discussions with Stanford economists and 7 years working on the ground, within governments, and inside philanthropy. It’s not a startup guide. But I hope it gives African femtech founders context on the macr

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